Toilet tank inlet valve



March 13, 1962 E. w. FLIEDER 3,024,799

TOILET TANK INLET VALVE Filed Aug. 5, 1959 M b 5 (2 1 0 g ivy/ ym? a v 34 5/ fM/L WFL /DEP 5 3334 WWW ited rates atent Patented Mar. 13, 1962 TOT-LET TANK INLET VALVE Emil W. Flieder, Canhy, Minn. Filed Aug. 3, 1959, Ser. No. 831,206 4 fliaims. (Cl. 1372tl7) This invention relates to toilet tank inlet valves.

An object of my invention is to provide a new and improved toilet tank inlet valve mechanism of simple and inexpensive construction and operation.

Another object of my invention is to provide a novel toilet tank inlet valve which will tightly shut off the supply of water and which is readily and easily operated and serviced.

Still another object of my invention is to provide a toilet tank inlet valve which is readily adjustable to carefully control the quantity of water allowed to flow into the tank after a flushing operation.

A further object of my invention is the provision of an improved and novel toilet tank inlet valve mechanism which is readily adjusted to control the quantity of water allowed to flow into the tank, and when adjusted, will retain the adjustment so that the quantity of water admitted during each flushing operation will be the same.

A still further object of my invention is the provision of a new toilet tank inlet valve wherein the valve element is operated only by the force of the water being admitted into the tank for purposes of moving the valve element against the seat and wherein any friction in the operating mechanism has only a minimum effect upon successful closure of the valve.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will more fully appear from the following description made in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference characters refer to the same or similar parts throughout the several views and in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevation view of the valve mechanism applied into a typical toilet tank which is shown in vertical section with a quanttiy of water therein;

FIG. 2 is a detail vertical section through the valve mechanism;

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the mechanism with a portion thereof broken away;

FIG. 4 is a top plan of the mechanism, and

FIG. 5 is a detail expanded view of certain of the parts in disassembled relation.

One form of the present invention is shown in the drawings and is described herein. The toilet tank inlet valve mechanism is indicated in general by numeral and is shown in FIG. 1 mounted in a toilet tank 11 of conventional design which has a pair of openings 12 and 13 in the bottom thereof respectively adapted for mounting the water inlet pipe 14 and the flush valve fittings 15 in which the conventional manually controlled handle-operated flushing valve 116 is received.

The toilet tank inlet valve mechanism Ill includes an upright enclosed housing IE7 which, in the form shown, is made in several parts including a diminished tubular rod-guiding and water-discharging lower end portion 18 which is threadably secured to the main body portion 19. The lower portion 18 of the housing defines an annular shoulder surface 20 upon which an annular gasket 21 is mounted to cooperatively provide the annular valve seat 22. A free ball valve element 23 is confined in the lower portion 24 of the interior chamber of the housing and is normally seated on the valve seat 22 and is maintained in seated condition by the pressure of water in the chamber 24. In the form shown, the housing 17 is Supported in the tank by the water inlet pipe 14 which is secured to the toilet tank 11 by suitable fittings 15. The upper portion 14a of a; the water inlet pipe projects into the interior of the housing 17 and is secured as by welding at 25. It will he noticed that the end portion 14a of the water inlet pipe is disposed below the upper interior chamber portion 26 of the housing 17 so that normally, a quantity of air will be entrapped in the upper chamber portion 26.

The top of the housing is closed by a suitable plate 27 which is aflixed and sealed to the inner periphery of the housing 17 as by welding 27a at a. position downwardly from the upper terminal edge 17a of the housing. The upper portion of the housing is notched across the diameter thereof as at 28.

The housing 17 has external threads 29 at its upper end portion and a nut 30 is threadably mounted thereon. The nut 3d has a pair of notches 31 which open in an upward direction and are positioned so as to register with the diametric notch in the housing 17. The notches 31 are substantially shallower in depth than the notches 28 in the housing.

A generally horizontally oriented arm 32 includes a bifurcated bracket 33 having a pivot shaft 34 extending between the opposite side portions or legs 33a and 33b of the bracket. The shaft 34- lies in the notches 28 and 31 to mount the arm 32 for vertical swinging. On one end portion of the arm 32 a conventional ball-type float 35 is threadably mounted at 35a and the position of float 35 is controlled by the level L of water W in the tank. The other end portion of the arm 32 swingably supports a depending bail 36 which has outturned end portions 37 projecting outwardly through apertures 33c in the legs of bracket 33. It will be noted that the apertures 33c are positioned between the pivot shaft 34 and the ends of the bracket legs so as to cause, when the float 35 moves downwardly, upward movement of the bail 36. The lower U-shaped intermediate portion 38 of the bail is received in the downwardly opening notches 39 in the lower end of an upright ball valve operating rod 40 which projects vertically through the lower tubular guiding portion 18 of the housing for engagement with the ball valve element 23. In the form shown, the rod 49 is of tubular configuration and also has notches 41 provided in the upper end thereof which are of a different length than the notches 39.

The arm 32 is jointed at 32a, and the arm segments 32b and 32c of arm 32 are interconnected by a pivot bolt 42 having a manually operable wing nut 43 thereon so that the segments 32!) and 32c may be adjusted at various angles with respect to each other and then clamped together to remain in fixed relation.

In connection with the operation, it Will be noted that the present valve mechanism 1%) has several striking aspects. Firstly, the valve operating mechanism is simply and readily demouutable so that adjustments can be made or parts may be readily replaced if desired by a person with only a minimum of skill. Secondly, by means of extremely simple adjustments, the level L of water maintained in the tank may be quickly and safely adjusted. Thirdly, the supply of water to the toilet tank is efficiently controlled and sealed closed when desired.

In the normal operation of the mechanism 10, the flushing is accomplished by lifting of the valve element 16. The water level L moves downwardly and the float 35 also moves downwardly causing downward swinging of arm 32 and upward camming movement of the ends 37 of the bail 36 which lifts the rod 40 and urges the free ball valve element 23 off the valve seat 22, whereupon water begins to flow immediately into the toilet tank through the bottom end of housing 17. When the water level decreases to the level of fitting 15, the valve element 16 returns to closed condition and the level L of the water again rises and produces a corresponding upward movement of float 35 and an upward swinging of arm 32. This moves the bail 36 downwardly and the force of the downwardly flowing water moves the valve element 23 back to its seat. The operation of the valve mechanism is, in the normal operation, smooth, without any sudden changes in the position of the elements. While valve element 23 is oil the seat, water will flow around the exterior periphery of rod 40 and will also flow through the notch 41 and through the center of rod 49.

In connection with the demountability of the valveoperating mechanism, it will be recognized that the float 35 may have to be replaced because such floats are subject to rusting out and the like and in order to easily replace the float it is desirable to have more room than the rather small confines of the interior of the toilet tank. The valve-operating mechanism may be simply demounted by merely lifting the tubular rod 49 and swinging the bail out of the notch 39, whereupon the bail 36 and arm 32, along with bracket 33 and ball 35 may be lifted out of the toilet tank. The rod 48 will be withdrawn from the tube 18 during the demounting. The demounting may be accomplished even though water pressure is maintained in the supply pipe 14, and after the rod 40 is removed, the free ball valve element 23 returns under the influence of flowing water to the seat so as to stop the flow of water. It should be recognized that in the demounting operation, the ball-controlling effect of rod 40 is absent and the ball valve element 23 moves against the seat extremely quickly but any tendency to produce water hammer condition in the valve is dissipated or damped by the entrapped air in the upper interior chamber portion 26.

To reassemble the valve-operating mechanism the reverse of the previously described process is carried out. The pivot shaft 34, is merely laid in the notches and the bail is swung beneath the tubular portion 18 into which the rod 40 has been inserted and then the rod 40 is dropped onto the ball 36.

With regard to the adjustment of the level L of the water in the tank, this may be accomplished while the valve operating mechanism is demounted. The nut 30 may be turned through substantially any number of half revolutions and the height of the nut is thereby adjusted to any of a number of predetermined positions. The l aising .or lowering of nut 30 adjusts the vertical position of pivot shaft 34 which adjusts the vertical position of rod 40. For instance, if the nut 30 is rotated through a complete turn, pivot shaft 34 is lowered, bail 36 is lowered androd 40 is allowed to lower. When the toilet is next flushed, the float 35 will move downwardly and upwardly with the level of the water, but the float 35 need not move as far upwardly as it previously did in order to drop the rod 44} sufliciently to allow the valve element to seat and therefore it will be seen that the level of the water in the tank may be maintained at a lower elevation by screwing the nut 30 downwardly on the housing and conversely, elevation of the water level L may be increased by screwing the nut 3d upwardly along the housing. It may be desirable to make a rather fine adjustment of the liquid level in addition to this stepwise adjustment effect by nut 3t) and the rather fine adjustment of the liquid level may be accomplished by adjusting the position of the arm segments 32b and 32s with respect to each other. It will be understood that if the adjustment is only effected by angulating the arm 32 at the joint the valve operating mechanism need not be demounted.

It should be pointed out that the adjustment by moving nut 30 is safely accomplished because even though valve element 23 will move quickly against the seat when rod 4t) is moved, no rupture of the housing is likely to occur because of the entrapped air in the upper chamber portion 26. It is pointed out that even though all of the valve operating mechanism is removed, the valve will remain closed because of the pressure of the water in chamber 24 operating on valve element 23, keeping the valve element 23 in seated condition.

It is also pointed out that the notches 28 in the housing 17 and the pivot shaft 34 cooperate to maintain the float 35 at a predetermined position between the front and rear walls of he toilet tank so as to prevent the float from rubbing against the tank walls and thereby causing excessive wear of the float. The pivot shaft 34 and notches 2.8 also cooperatively maintain the nut 30 at a predetermined adjusted position so that when the adjustment is first set, the adjustment will not change and therefore the desired level L of Water in the tank is maintained.

It is also pointed out that additional adjustment of the level L may be obtained by reversing the rod 40 end for end so that the deeper or shallower notches at opposite ends of the rod are employed to receive the bail 36.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, detail, arrangement and proportion of the parts without departing from the scope of my invention which consists of the matter described herein and set forth in the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A toilet tank inlet valve mechanism comprising an upright enclosed housing and having an upper end portion and also having a lower end portion with a discharge opening therein and an internal annular valve seat surrounding the opening, a free ball valve element in the housing and on the seat, means for supporting the housing and including a water supply pipe secured to and communicating with the housing, a substantially rigid and generally horizontal arm, a transverse pivot shaft on the arm and positioned intermediate the ends thereof, the upper end of the housing being threaded and having a notch extending across the diameter thereof, a nut threaded on the housing and having notches positioned to register with the notch in the housing, said pivot shaft lying in the notches and supporting the arm for vertical swinging, a float on one end of the arm, a swingable depending bail on the other end of the arm, an upright movable rod in the valve opening and being engageable with the valve element for unseating the same and having a notched lower end supported on the bail to be moved upwardly thereby when the float is lowered.

2. The invention set forth in claim 1 wherein the notch across the end of the housing is substantially deeper than the notches in the nut.

3. An inlet valve mechanism comprising an upright enclosed housing having an upper end portion and also having a lower end portion with a discharge opening therein, and an internal annular valve seat surrounding the opening, a free ball valve element in the housing and on the seat, means for supporting the housing and including a water-supply pipe secured to and communicating with the housing, a substantially rigid and substantially horizontal arm, a transverse pivot shaft on the arm and positioned intermediate the ends thereof, the upper end of the housing being threaded and having a notch extending thereacross, a nut threaded on the housing and having notches positioned to register with the notch in the housing, said pivot shaft lying in said notches and supporting the arm for vertical swinging, a float on one end of the arm and spaced from said pivot shaft by a first distance, a swingable depending rod support on the other end of the arm and spaced from said pivot shaft by a second distance substantially smaller than said first distance, an upright movable rod in the valve opening and being engageable with the valve element for unseating the same and having a lower end supported on said rod support to be moved upwardly thereby when the float is lowered.

4. An inlet valve mechanism comprising an upright enclosed housing having a lower end portion with a discharge opening therein and defining an internal valve seat surrounding the opening, a free ball valve elementin the housing and on the seat, means for supporting the housing and including a water supply pipe communicating with the housing, a substantially rigid and generally horizontal arm, a pivot shaft on the arm intermediate the ends thereof, the upper end of the housing being threaded and having a notch extending thereacross, a nut threaded on the housing and having notches positioned to register with the notch in the housing, said pivot shaft lying in the notches and supporting the arm for vertical swinging, a float at one end of the arm and spaced from the shaft by a first distance, a swingable depending rod support on the other end of the arm and spaced from the pivot shaft by a second distance substantially less than said first distance, an upright movable rod in the valve opening and being engageable with the valve element for unseating the same and having a lower end supported on said rod support to be moved upwardly thereby when the float is lowered with the water level in the tank, said arm being jointed between the float and the pivot shaft to permit angular adjustment of the outer end of the arm adjacent the float, and releasable means restraining swinging of the arm at the joint.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 742,758 Valerius Oct. 27, 1903 925,153 Barry June 15, 1909 1,005,044 Koch Oct. 3, 1911 1,032,308 Stock July 9, 1912 1,044,311 Wall Nov. 12, 1912 1,119,137 Cornaggia Dec. 1, 1914 1,156,719 Stokes Oct. 12, 1915 1,160,395 Foley Nov. 16, 1915 1,982,550 Skuttle Nov. 27, 9 4

FOREIGN PATENTS 512,068 Great Britain Aug. 29, 1939 

